By Anthony Levay
Supreme Minerals Corporation (SL) Limited (SMC), a company prospecting for gold in Sierra Leone, has handed over a three-classroom block to villagers in Lablama, Valunia Chiefdom in the southern district of Bo, where it intends to do the mining.
The company said the school is part of their many contributions to the community as they seek to secure a license to mine there.
The newly constructed school, which has been named Supreme Community School, will cater for children in the village. As part of their support the company said they will also hire and pay all the teachers, feed the kids and provide learning materials.
SMC has promised to employ up to 1000 people in the chiefdom when it commences mining.
The Chief Executive of the company, Mallik Chennam, said: “education enlightens the people to own development, so we had to build school for the children of Lablama to go to school and be educated.”
A representative of the National Minerals Agency in Bo, Issaac Kallon, said during the program that he was impressed by the work the company was already doing in the area. .
Paramount chief of Valuania Chiefdom, Dr. Margaret Gbani, said she was already proud of the work the company was doing in her chiefdom, even when they had not started mining yet.
"Supreme Mineral Corporation has made my Chiefdom proud. I pray the company will succeed in my chiefdom. I have been an educationist and I know the importance of education towards success,” PC Gbani said.
“This company has not started mining in our community, but it has started bringing development here,” she added.
The chief ended her statement with a plea for parents to send their children to school.
Member of Parliament, Joseph Bash Kamara, in whose constituency the company will be operating, urged the people to support it. He said as a Member of Parliament representing the area, one of the many ways he could ensure development came to them was through lobbying companies like Supreme to invest in the area.
The school is expected to be opened by Monday, whiles recruitment process for teachers is underway. The company say they also have plans of constructing hospital in the chiefdom and invest more in girls to keep them in school.
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